As a school, we actively promote excellent attendance and will look to support and challenge weaker attendance. This includes punctuality.  We encourage each child to achieve excellent attendance with a wide range of incentive awards outlined further down this page.  Excellent attendance is the essential foundation to positive outcomes for all pupils, including their safeguarding and welfare.

The Department for Education states that:

"The law entitles every child of compulsory school age to an efficient, full-time education suitable to their age, aptitude, and any special educational need they may have. It is the legal responsibility of every parent to make sure their child receives that education either by attendance at a school or by education otherwise than at a school.Where parents decide to have their child registered at school, they have an additional legal duty to ensure their child attends that school regularly. This means their child must attend every day that the school is open, except in a small number of allowable circumstances, such as being too ill to attend or being given permission for an absence in advance from the school".

"The most effective schools consistently promote the benefits of good attendance at school and make schools a place pupils want to be, set high expectations for every pupil, communicate those expectations clearly and consistently to pupils and parents, systematically analyse their data to identify patterns to target their improvement efforts, and work effectively with the local authority and other local partners to overcome barriers to attendance. They also recognise that attendance cannot be seen in isolation and that the foundation to good attendance is a calm, orderly, safe and supportive environment in which all pupils can learn and thrive. To manage and improve attendance effectively, all schools are expected to:

• Build strong relationships and work jointly with families, listening to and understanding barriers to attendance and working in partnership with families to remove them.
• Develop and maintain a whole school culture that promotes the benefits of high attendance.
• Have a clear school attendance policy which all staff, pupils and parents understand.
• Accurately complete admission and, with the exception of schools where all pupils are boarders, attendance registers and have effective day-to-day processes in place for follow-up absence.
• Regularly monitor and analyse attendance and absence data to identify pupils or cohorts that require support with their attendance and put effective strategies in place.
• Share information and work collaboratively with other schools in the area, local authorities, and other partners where a pupil’s absence is at risk of becoming persistent or severe.
• Be particularly mindful of pupils absent from school due to mental or physical ill health or their special educational needs and/or disabilities, and provide them with additional support.